Washington State drops to 15th in BCS
Oregon's postseason bowl
plans were narrowed by
the outcome of Saturday's
Apple Cup in Seattle
By Mindi Rice
Senior Sports Reporter
The Ducks may have won the war
Saturday, but Washington State
likely won the holiday in the sun by
taking a 27-19 loss to Washington.
The defeat dropped the Cougars to
No. 15 in Monday's Bowl Champi
onship Series standings, putting
_ them
FOOTBALL
MOTES running
_ for an "at
large" bid
to the Rose Bowl and likely into the
Holiday Bowl.
"It would be nice to win a bowl
and be the, whatever, Little Brown
Shoe Bowl champions," Washing
ton State head coach Bill Doba told
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It
sounds like it might be the 1 loliday
Bowl, and that's a great bowl. It's a
lot of fun down in San Diego, and
our team will have a good time."
The Cougars are staying positive
after their sixth-consecutive Apple
Cup loss to Washington. The win
allowed the Huskies to become
bowl eligible, and they are tied with
UCLA for sixth in the conference
with a 4-4 Pacific-10 Conference
record and 6-6 overall.
The victory also kept Washington
from its first losing season since 1976.
"I don't know if this saves our
season," Huskies head coach Keith
Gilbertson told The (Tacoma) News
Tribune. "It's a marvelous moment.
Then again, when you coach Wash
ington your first job is to beat WSU.
All that matters right now is that for
the next 24 hours I get to be the
happiest guy on the planet."
Washington State got an early
lead on Saturday with a field goal
four minutes into the game. The
Cougars were ahead, 16-7, at the
beginning of the fourth quarter un
til Washington put together a 20-3
run for the 27-19 win.
With one minute and 10 seconds
remaining in the game, Husky
quarterback Cody Pickett found
freshman Corey Williams for a 21
yard touchdown pass to take a 20
19 lead.
The two-point conversion failed,
but 36 seconds later Washington
linebacker Marquis Cooper inter
cepted a pass by Josh Swogger and
returned it 38 yards for a touch
down, putting the Huskies up for
good, 27-19.
"Every win is good," Gilbertson
said. "It's like pizza."
Although the Cougars were like
ly booted from contention for the
Rose Bowl, not all of the players are
taking it hard.
"We're going to another great
bowl," Cougar senior Erik Coleman
said. "When I first got here, a bowl
was kind of a far shot, and now
we're competing for BCS bowls and
(Pacific-10 Conference) titles. This
program is on the rise. We're getting
good guys in, and good coaches. We
have a good foundation. And we're
still going to a good bowl and there
are a lot of things looking up here."
Bowl bids for Pac-10 schools will
most likely be handed out after the
outcome of the Dec. 6 Oregon State
at USC game.
Oregon's schedule
The Ducks get some well-de
served days off this week as the
team breaks from practice so that
players can join their families for
the Thanksgiving holiday.
"We'll take three or four days off
now, and come back the Monday
after Thanksgiving and have a real
generic practice since we most likely
won't know who we're playing,"
Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti
said after Saturday's win. "We'll try
to keep in running shape, rehab
some injuries and keep the compet
itive edge there."
Parting shot
After the Civil War victory Satur
day, senior Keith Lewis was again
allowed to talk to the media.
"You've got to have respect for
them for just lining up and believ
ing in their system," Lewis said.
Contact the senior sports reporter
at mindirice@dailyemerald.com.
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NCAA
continued from page 9
our team all year," head coach Martin
Smith said. "We've had some strong
runners up front, but then have had
problems with our remaining scorers.
We were less than 50 points out of
13th place, so we could have taken a
noticeable jump with another solid
body in the top 150."
However, it was both the Stanford
men and women who stole the
show again for the second time in as
many years.
The top-ranked Stanford men ran
away with the title with four of its run
ners finishing in the top sue.
The Stanford women, ranked No. 2
entering the meet, finished with four
of their runners in the top 23. Stan
ford beat out defending champion
BYU by eight points for first.
Meanwhile, the Oregon women's
lone representative was Magdalena
Sandoval, who finished the race in
21:18, which was good for 105th
overall.
But that doesn't tell the whole story.
The senior, who finished in the top
10 of every race she has competed in
this season, fell in the first 300 meters
of the race. Sandoval found herself
dead last among the 255 runners in
the field and 20 meters behind the
nearest runner.
"I went down hard and hit my
head pretty hard, so it took me a few
seconds to figure out how I felt,"
Sandoval said. "I came into the sea
son hoping to be an All-America,
and I felt before the race that I was
still on course. Nobody ever expects
something like this to happen, so it's
a shock."
Her most recent finish in a 6,000
meter race was in the NCAA Western
Regional where she finished with a
time of 20:48. Sandoval probably
would have beat that time if she had
n't fell, and can now only wonder
what could have been.
"Magdalena did the best she could
in an awful situation," head coach
Mamie Mason said. "She showed
some amazing resolve to react like she
did in a really hard fall, and I told her
she has nothing to be ashamed of.
She represented the team and herself
like a soldier."
Despite the fall, Sandoval quickly
outpaced the 150 people ahead of
her, including former teammate, Col
orado State's Nicole Feest, who trans
ferred during the off season.
Feest finished 106th.
Scott Archer is a freelance sports
reporter for the Emerald.
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